With the goal of making Parkside's Vicente Street safer for cyclists and pedestrians, the SFMTA is proposing conversions of parking spaces and painted bike lanes running from 17th Avenue to the Great Highway.

While Vicente Street already includes bike sharrows that designate the street as a shared lane for cars and cyclists, the SFMTA's Sustainable Streets division is considering installing painted bike lanes on both sides of the street (east and westbound) and re-aligning parking spaces.

Compared to dedicated bike lanes, studies have shown that sharrows have a higher rate of cyclist collisions—worse than streets without sharrows or lanes.

How a bike lane on Vicente Street would affect parking and traffic lanes. | Image: SFMTA

The new bike lanes would look similar to those on Ortega and Cabrillo streets, the agency says.

Ortega Street bike lane. | Photo: Google Maps

Another change coming to Vicente Street would involve re-aligning
parking spaces and improving visibility in two sections. Neighbors in the area have previously petitioned the agency to convert
parallel parking spaces to perpendicular ones on the south side of
Vicente between 44th and 46th avenues, which would add five
parking spaces to the area.

Other changes for parking involve converting "front-in" angled
parking spaces into "back-in" angled spaces on the southern side of
Vicente between 39th and 40th avenues. The SFMTA says that this will make it
easier for drivers to see oncoming traffic.

The conversion to
"front-in" parking spaces would take place near a heavily trafficked
section of Vicente, which includes the Sunset Supermarket (between 39th
and 40th avenues), the South Sunset Playground at 41st Avenue, and Ulloa
Elementary at 42nd Avenue.

A final proposal for visibility includes "daylighting" at school intersections, which would see parking spaces removed so that people crossing are more easily seen as they start making their way across the street.